after hitting the lowest level in three decades last year. the managing director of the international monetary fund says china faces "a fork in the road" where it can choose to move away from policies that have worked in the past, and re—invent itself. it is very important to open up more space for entrepreneurship and create new drivers for growth, new industries that can bring china's prosperity up. julia lee from state street global advisors says she is seeing some signs of a pick up in investments in china. this is an interesting one and one that's making headlines around financial markets. when we do have a look at exchange trader funds, there's been a lot happening. and some of the new changes could mean more investment into china, which is great news for exchange trader funds. it comes at a time when perhaps the japan central bank is looking at easing back on etf purchases, so watching china closely. the other thing that we've been watching with china, which is a bit of a contrarian play at the moment, is that flows into china etfs have been positive in 2024, so it might be an early indicator but it does look like some investors, very early, willing to dabble their toes into the chinese equities market, given the very low valuations there, despite some of the struggles in terms of the economy and the market. carrying on from that discussion is of how china sort of plays into this region when it comes to where people are looking to invest. what's your outlook going forward for the year? if we have a look at flows in major regions, it's really been the us that's been dominating flows. i mean, if we have a look at the month of february, saw a record 56 billion us dollars worth of flows into etfs in the us, and that means assets surpassed $8.5 trillion us for the very first time in history. we have a look at where the money is going, most of that is still dominated by us equity flows, so watching that very carefully and also, watching where that money is coming from. while retail investors have been very positive, this risk rally that we've been seeing, institutional investors have been much more cautious. and if we have a look at stage three internal numbers, we can see that institutional investors have now increased equity allocations to the highest level that we've seen sincejuly last year, so that's a good indicator but a bit of cautiousness, given that we are still in march and often, the ides of march where key turning points in markets often occur with a high or a low for the markets, but no sign of that yet — the s&p 500 still making record highs. what will you be watching for in the markets for this week? first of all, the key that's been driving markets is expectations around those rate cuts. when you've got 10 out of 11 major economies planning cuts in 2024, then you know that that's going to be important and it really kicked off last week — a surprise move by the swiss national bank, having raised by 25 basis points to 1.5%, and that's a move that we haven't seen since 2015, and it did come as a bit of a surprise to markets — markets had been pricing in eight basis points this month with a full cut expected byjune. and, of course, we sanapan going the other way with a rate hike — the first move since 2007 — so rates still very much in the picture but, of course, this quarter also coming to a close and it is easter holidays in many major markets, so it could be the end of month and end of quarter training is on thursday rather than friday in a lot of markets around the globe, but also watching those inflationaries coming out of singapore today — expected to be at 2.8% — and retail sales expected to slow in australia for the month of february, down to 0.5% from 1.1%, injanuary. hong kong's controversial new security law has come into effect over the weekend. critics have said article 23 could undermine the city's status as an international financial hub. beijing counters the legislation will protect national interests and allow hong kong to focus on economic development. our business reporter joao da silva has more. article 23 looks to be the latest headwind to land in hong kong after pro—democracy protests in 2019, then the pandemic and strict lockdowns which grounded the economy to a halt. many international businesses have moved out and set up regional headquarters elsewhere in asia. housing prices, once among the most expensive in the world, have plunged 20% since their 2021 peak. hong kong's crown jewel, the hang seng index, today trades at roughly half its value before the 2019 protests. and, for the first time since the economic freedom of the world index started more than 50 years ago, the city has lost its top spot at the top of the ranking. now, there's concern that vague provisions in hong kong's new national security law around state secrets and links to foreign entities could have a further chilling effect on many global businesses in the financial hub. the warning from one washington dc—based political risk consultant with financial sector clients — be cautious. my advice to my clients would be to play it very safe to potentially consider doing such work outside of hong kong rather than risk the vagueness of the law coming back to bite them. in hong kong, allan zeman is a prominent figure in the business community. he believes authorities will prioritise protecting the community. the most important thing about it, is that you have to have criminal intent, that to do something, and it really applies to a very small minority of people. and most of those that were troublemakers have already left hong kong. the losses appear to be stacking up for hong kong, as a globalfinancial hub. and businesses in the city are closely monitoring the potential side effects of article 23. the anz group will settle a class—action lawsuit relating to the interest charged on credit cards. the lawsuit alleges from 2010 — 2019 charged interest on some credit card purchases that should have been interest free. anz says the settlement is not an admission of liability. south america now. over to south america now, where guyana's oil sector is booming. the tiny country of around 800,000 people is one of the world's fastest growing economies. exxonmobil is a key player there, because of a deal it signed with its previous government, which some say is controversial. stephen sakur from the bbc�*s hardtalk programme caught up with the president of exxonmobil guyana. remember when we signed the agreements here, there was still a lot of risk very early in the exploration of this basin and, indeed, you know, risks are notjust geological risks when you operate in a new developing country or in different parts of the world, so all of that needs to be taken into account. sure, but you only paid — correct me if i'm wrong — 2% royalties in this country. the norm in many other countries is 10%. the cost—sharing agreement with guyana means you can claim literally billions and billions of dollars of costs before you even get to the profit—sharing. that kind of deal, according to global witness — an anti—corruption organisation — is robbing guyana of tens of billions of dollars. oh, no, it's not robbing the country. what it's doing is delivering the investment that the country is looking for in a frontier development location, where there remains high risk, it's competing for capital globally. we take all of the expiration risk up front, we invest all those dollars up front, and the country benefits — notjust by the royalty, but also the profit share. it's a profit—sharing agreement. if one looks at the big picture, greenpeace and many other environmental activists have made one thing very plain — they say if the world is to have any chance of avoiding the most damaging impacts of global heating, then most of the oil and gas yet to be exploited has to be left in the ground. what we see is a world that still needs dependable, secure energy supply. and in our mind, this is an adequation. we cannot fail in our duty to deliver what modern society needs. we need to deliver that but we can do it while reducing emissions. the emissions from our operations here will be 30% lower intensity than the rest of our upstream operation. but by the time you have finished — if you, indeed, complete the extraction of oil and gas from offshore — that will be at least 2 billion tonnes of extra carbon emissions that you will put into the planetary atmosphere. with the projects and the developments we're here, investing the later technology, low intensity developments, we are reducing the overall emissions footprint of operations today. and as a corporation we're committed to the pathway to net zero by 2050. we're on it. it's a pathway. you don't get there overnight, and we can't meet the needs of society today if we just turn the lights off. mcdonald's has ended an agreement with its local partner in sri lanka and all 12 outlets in the country have been closed. an attorney for the fast—food giant says it has "decided to terminate the agreement with the franchisee due to standard issues." and that's it for this edition of asia business report. i'll see you again tomorrow. hello, i'm 0llie foster. here's what's coming up on sportsday. there's an upset in miami as fabian marozsan add another top ten player to the list. even with a player sent off, it's a breeze for england's women as they start the defence of their six nations title. and footballer greg halford opens up about how being identified as autistic shaped his career. hello there. welcome along to the programme. we'll start with tennis where, at the miami 0pen, fabian marozsan ripped up the form book with a stunning 6—1, 6—1victory over sixth seed holger rune to book his place in third round of the tournament. the hungarian, who also beat carlos alcaraz and casper ruud in masters events last year, played some incredible tennis to sweep past rune in a dominant display at the hard rock stadium, winning in under an hour. ben shelton has kept the home fans happy in miami, moving into the third round after a comfortable straight—sets win over spain's martin landaluce. the 21—year—old did not face a single break point. next up for him — the 23rd seed lorenzo musetti. and ninth seed alex de minaur eased past korea's soon—woo kwon, winning 6—3, 6—2. jan—lennard struff next for him. in the women's draw, the americanjessica pegula is through to the last 16. she beat canada's leylah fernandez, the 2021 us open runner—up. the 30—year—old number fifth seed fought back from 5—3 down in the opening set with a run of five—straight games

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